from: AllAboutJazz.com

Dance Like There's No Tomorrow

John Ellis & Double-Wide | HYENA Records (2008)

By Chris May

The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, which laid waste to much of New Orleans in August 2005, has inspired a clutch albums lauding the city and its people, and lambasting the colossal failure of the US government to pick up the pieces. Some of these tributes have been heartfelt; others have appeared opportunistic, going on cynical. Until now, the most eloquent and credible has probably been trumpeter Terence Blanchard's magnificent A Tale Of God's Will (Blue Note, 2007), subtitled “A Requiem For Katrina,” and featuring Blanchard's road band alongside the Northwest Sinfonia.

Blanchard's opus has now been joined by another engaging, and patently sincere, disc—saxophonist John Ellis' Dance Like There's No Tomorrow, a rude and vigorous wake to set alongside Blanchard's sophisticated and elegiac concerto.

North Carolina-born Ellis, who spent some of his formative years as a musician in New Orleans, set out to make an album taking dance as its reference point and, along the way, celebrating defiance in the face of adversity. New Orleans, Ellis writes, has always known how to live for the day and “dance like there's no tomorrow.” The saxophonist has brilliantly captured this spirit with his by now well seasoned blend of funk, old school R&B and creative modern jazz (click here to read more...).

Click here to read full review at AllAboutJazz.com.